Double Team
by Word spinner
Summary: The eighth Doctor appears in the ninth's control room, much to Rose's astonishment and the ninth Doctor's annoyance.
1. Chapter 1

This story features the 9th doctor (who, by the sudden proliferation of ninth doctor fanfiction I am assuming everyone knows) and the 8th doctor, played by Paul Mcgann. He was meant to have a series, but the movie was mismanaged in America and the deal fell through. A great shame because he was the best doctor.

Aside from him, Tom Baker was the best. In anycase, on with the story. If you are not aware of this doctor, his only screen time, as far as I know, is in the Doctor Who movie. He has numerous audio stories and books, however...

**Note** : I realize that Rose was never told about regeneration. Had she been so, she might not have been so upset when the tenth doctor appeared. In this story, she finds out about it. This was written quickly; I was tired and work starts again in...exactly 8 hours time...i hope this story...and myself...can hold together...

This story does not fit well into a specific place in the Doctor who timeline (confusing as it is anyway).

Daleks will make an appearance later. (Naturally.)

**Synopsis** : The eighth Doctor appears in the ninth's control room, much to Rose's astonishment and the ninth's annoyance.

Rose walked into the TARDIS control room and froze. A stranger was there...a man. She stared at the him incredulously, but he, in his haste to set the controls had yet to notice her. He was wearing a green coat and beige trousers. His hair was shoulder length, brown, slightly curly. "Who _are_ you?"

He snapped his head up, startled, then frowned, disbelief clear on his face. "I should be asking the same thing!" he retorted. "How did you get into _my_ TARDIS?

Rose put her hands on her hips. "_Excuse me? Your TARDIS?_"

"Yes, this TARDIS is mine. How did you get onboard it?"

"_This_ TARDIS belong to the _Doctor..._does he know you're onboard?"

"Yes, I know, and so does he." The stranger nodded. "I am the Doctor and I am very aware that I am present, as I should be, whereas _you_ are a stowaway." He stood back, looking her over. "You're human aren't you?"

"Yes..." Rose faltered.

"English?"

"Yes..."

He moved past her and bent over the control panel. "Odd...I don't recall setting coordinates for – "

Rose rushed forward to stop him. "Don't touch those!" he pushed her away, gently, but firmly.

"I think I'm _quite_ capable of piloting my own TARDIS, _thank you!_ Now...there, that should do it."

Rose regarded him in deep suspicion. "What did you do?"

"I'm taking you home. Earth. England. Then I'll be going were I was originally going before you messed with my controls..." he trailed of, realizing what he had just said. "Wait a moment...you're human...how would you know how to pilot a TARDIS? Unless...is there someone else with you?"

Rose stared at him a moment longer and turned away, running down the corridor.

"Doctor!" she shrieked. "Doctor! Oh,thank goodness!"

"Easy on, Rose!" the Doctor laughed, coming out of one of his private rooms. "What's the matter?"

"You've got to come! Come on, quickly, to the control room!"

"Why? What's wrong?" he frowned.

"There...there's someone there...he reckons _he's_ the Doctor..."

"Does he now? We'd better go see him..."

They made their way back, and sure enough, the stranger was still there. He's finished inputting his course and was standing back, looking quite pleased with himself.

"There, you see?" Rose pointed.

The stranger looked over, hearing her voice. "Oh, you came back?" then he stared the Doctor..._her_ Doctor. "Are you the one who tampered with my controls?

"_You?_" The Doctor said, confused. "What are you doing here?"

"Do we know each other?" the stranger asked mildly.

"What...what is it?" Rose asked. She looked quite anxious. "Do you know him?

"Yes..." the Doctor faltered. "He's _me..._"

The stranger's eyes lit up. "Ah...now I see...you must be one of my later regenerations...or you're simply an imposter claiming to one."

"Oh I'm real, no question there!" the Doctor returned, tugging meaningfully on his leather jacket.

"Wait...wait...what's happening here?" Rose demanded. She was rapidly losing control of the situation. "You know_ him..._because...he's _you?_"

The stranger shook his head. "You haven't told her about regeneration yet? _Not_ very nice of you. Grace was told straight away."

"Only because Grace nearly killed us, for good – don't think I've forgotten."

To Rose's astonishment the two exchanged knowing smiles.

"Who's Grace?" she asked, her eyes narrowed.

"A woman who operated on me – " her Doctor began.

" – on _me_, to be perfectly precise." The other Doctor corrected.

"Yes, on _him_. My seventh body was shot. I was taken to hospital. You can guess; two hearts. Confused the poor woman."

"So...what happened?"

"Well...she lost her job...and her anesthetic nearly stopped me from changing."

"_Regenerating_." The other Doctor muttered. "Look Miss...I'm sorry, what did you say your name was?"

"Rose..."

"_Rose_, hmm? Well, _Rose_, when a timelord dies he regenerates, he gets a new body, and a new personality. The man beside you is what I will become when I die. In a way I'm heartened to find that I continue. After all, if my next death was to result in something like matter dispersal, no regeneration in the universe could heal it."

Rose shook her head. "_Matter dispersion?_"

"Disintegration." Her Doctor said. "Well...you're here now...care to explain why? There's not any more of us lurking about is there?"

"I should hope not. But this does raise the important question, as Rose and I were discussing earlier; are you in my TARDIS or am I in yours? Of course_ technically_ they're the same entity, but..."

"Mine." Said the ninth, in a tone that ruled out any further debate. "Didn't you notice? I've redecorated." He glanced up meaningfully.

"So you have..." the eighth murmured. "You know I thought something seemed odd about this place, I just couldn't put my finger on it..."

"So...why are you here?" the ninth demanded.

"Do I really become such a brooding character? You'd think I wasn't welcome. You haven't even said hello, and I had to ask the lady's name myself."

"Why are you here? You shouldn't be here! You know what happens when our timelines clash!"

"Oh, I know, only too well. Never pleasant is it? I mean you'd think it would be, meeting your old...or _new_ self. The world just isn't big enough for two Doctors at the same time is it?" the eighth sighed. "I _do not know why_ I am here. You are most _definitely_ right – I _shouldn't_ be. _I shouldn't be..._"

"Well how did you get here? An accidental time corridor between our two TARDISes? Or from elsewhere? I – _you_, once made an equation in a prison cell that let you speak with our third life."

"Just a sec..._third life?_" Rose interrupted "Just how many of you are there...or were there..._or whatever?_"

"A time lord has thirteen lives," the eighth said, before the ninth could open his mouth. "I'm the eighth, your _demanding_ friend here is the ninth." He paused. "Could be worse I guess. Poor Peri..." he looked curiously at Rose. "He hasn't tried to strangle you, has he?"

"_No I haven't!_" the ninth returned angrily.

"Well, that's good."

There was an uneasy silence.

"Well?" the ninth said at last.

"I was standing in my control room, and then Rose appeared and here we are." The eighth muttered.

"Except this isn't your control room - _anymore_." The ninth corrected, knowing his former self would be swift to point out that _technically_ it was. "You always were a bit prone to amnesia weren't you?"

"Yes," the eighth agreed stiffly. "I know. But that doesn't help us much does it?"

Presently there was a faint sound. The ninth frowned. "We've landed. We shouldn't reach – "

"We're on Earth." Rose said in a tight voice. "He...he was taking me home...see..."

"Taking you home...why?"

"I thought it was my TARDIS. It seemed only right to send a stray girl back to wherever she had come from."

"Do you even know where she's from? What town, what region?"

"Well no, now that you ask. I was hoping to ask her until you came barging in and making a big deal out of everything." The eighth turned to the controls, "shall we take a stroll?"

When the ninth made no reply, Rose whispered to him.

"What harm can it be...I mean...if he_ is_ you...I mean...why not go with him?"

The ninth frowned. "I suppose we could. I wonder what else will turn up." As they all walked to the door, the ninth glanced at the screens on the control panel.

"What's this...? Coordinates pending..._Gallifrey?_"

"Why are you surprised?" the eighth asked. "I have business with Romana – forgive me – _President_ Romana. Mustn't forget how important titles are on Gallifrey. I hope they don't make me wear one of those ceremonial gowns again..."

"They won't..." the ninth muttered. He cast his predecessor a dark look. "If you actually are in my timeline, using my TARDIS...then there _is no_ Gallifrey."

The eighth froze, even as he was about to open the TARDIS doors. "_No Gallifrey?_" he repeated in disbelief. "Are you quite sure?"

"Absolutely positive."

"Well...how? Why?"

"I shouldn't tell you..."

"You know as well as I do that it won't change a thing if you do. If something so catastrophic as the destruction of Gallifrey came to pass than it was bound to happen, one way or another. What happens? Tell me, please..."

"The Time War."

"_Time_ War? You imply that our enemy has the power over time as we do."

"Then you should be able to guess who our enemies were..."

The eighth was silent. He turned away, and shook his head, then hesitated and glanced at the ninth. "The _Master..._but no, the Eye saw to him. Even _he_ couldn't have contrived a way toescape that..."

"Daleks." The ninth answered.

"_Daleks? _But Dalek time technology is rudimentary at best. How could they have risen to rival the Council of the Time Lords?"

"A long story."

"So I take it that the Dalek race achieved its goal then, to exterminate all life? However do you manage? With the taking of Gallifrey the Daleks would have become the masters of time."

"Not exactly...they died with us...or so I thought...it seems at least one escaped."

"One Dalek?" the eighth smirked. "Not too much to worry about. But what of Romana? Did_ she_ escape?"

"I don't know...but I doubt it."

Rose just stared, open mouthed, stunned at what she was hearing; _two_ Doctors, having a conversation with each other. She was a strand away from cracking. It was unbelievable. She would have laughed, if they both weren't so serious.

At length, the eighth spoke again. "Look, we're in England now, and there's bound to be a nice café around somewhere nearby. I think we should all get ourselves a table, get some tea and have a nice long talk about all of this..."

Feel free to comment on characters, plot, anything. Even questions about the series...Ch. 2 later...


	2. Chapter 2

**Part Two**

I must say that I am amazed. I have never received so many reviews so quickly. Therefore, I shall increase the amount of time I spend on this story to handle the demand. For the record, the 7th Doctor is also one of the better ones. In my own personal preference he comes in at third place, after the 8th and the 4th .

Considering there are now 10, that's not bad. I think number 10 will turn out better than 9. Just a prediction...

I'm still tired by the way...time escapes me...

(I'm actually making this up entirely as I go along...I have no plan. Probably best to have kept quiet about that, but I added it so that you can understand if it gets a bit...weird...hopefully it won't.)

So, on with the story...

The TARDIS had materialized on the second story of a car park in Birmingham. As the eighth Doctor had assumed, there was indeed a very nice café close at hand; several in fact, and he chose the classiest.

The three of them sat inside; it was a typical English winter day, with a full complement of storm clouds and enough rain to irrigate all of central Australia. It was cold too.

At the eighth's own insistence he went to order, claiming that if the ninth went, they'd likely end up with beers instead of tea.

As he left the ninth retorted about books and their covers. The eighth made a face and went to the counter.

"So...what's up with this fella?" asked Rose, craning he neck to see that the eighth was ordering the correct cake she had asked for. "He's nothing like you, Doctor."

"As he said, we change when we regenerate, not just in looks, but in attitude as well."

"Well, I think you're both nice guys," she said with a smile. "He talks a bit more...he's more...open, isn't he?"

"Talks too much," the ninth returned, fiddling with his coaster. "Haven't you noticed? Most of the things he talks about you could have figured out for yourself. He loves to hear the sound of his own voice."

"That's not very nice. Like he said, he didn't mean to rock up in you TARDIS. Does it happen often...you...meeting yourself?"

"Rarely."

Rose stared at him. He was being even more abrupt then usual and seemed edgy, very edgy. Perhaps beers wouldn't be such a bad thing...

"Well, here we are!" the eighth said, returning with a tray. "Carmel tea with two sugars for me, a hot chocolate for the lady, oh, and here – you see, I did buy the correct cake, and a cappuccino for you. Are you sure you don't want a cake?" he regarded his successor dubiously.

"No, I'm fine thanks," the ninth answered. "What on earth is that?" he asked, pointing in derision at a second cake that the eighth had purchased for himself.

"This, my friends, is a pumpkin tart."

Rose grimaced. "A pumpkin tart? Sounds...gross!"

"Sounds so but tastes sweeter than...than the sweetest thing you can imagine!" The eighth finished.

For the next few minutes they ate and drank as normal people do. They talked about the weather, about England, and about the people around them.

"Well, now that we have our tea, shall we discuss the matter at hand?" the ninth asked as he finished his cappuccino. "What do you intend to do?"

"Well, get to Gallifrey, first and foremost. That's what I was doing, answering Romana's summons."

"She summoned you? Why?" the ninth asked.

"Well I don't know, do I? She didn't tell me."

"What did she say then?"

"It was a short encrypted message, which I thought was strange to begin with, saying only that she wanted to see me urgently regarding a matter; and that I might be the only one with the expertise to fix it."

"Could she have brought you into this timeline? She had a penchant for alternative universes..."

"You forget that in my timeline the Timelords are still very much active. There are still somethings they won't let you do, not even the president."

"Well if it wasn't the Timelords it must have been the..."

"What?" asked Rose, worried at the look on her Doctor's face.

"I've just had a terrible thought..."

"Care to share it?" Rose asked.

"Don't you see Rose, the time war! That's where I must have been going! I was about to answer a summons from Romana! I remember now! I certainly wasn't expecting to walk into a war. Yet that must be exactly what I was doing. I was unwittingly rushing forward to play my part – the key part; the destruction of the Dalek fleet."

"And?"

"Somebody didn't want that to happen. Someone didn't want me to get involved."

"And?"

"They must have transmatted me away..." the eighth muttered.

"But nothing can enter the TARDIS..." The ninth reminded him.

"Ah, but things can. Remember your own history? We were transmatted from the TARDIS to Skaro, of all places., by a fellow time lord, I might add.

"Took Harry and Sarah with us."

"Ah, so you do remember."

"I should have finished those stinking one eyed mutants when I had the chance!"

"Shoulds and ifs mean little once their time has passed. We must get back to your TARDIS and get to Gallifrey! We must make sure history stays its course."

"But...you said that Gale...Galif...whatever, you said that it would be destroyed anyway." Rose said.

"Yes, indeed, but have you considered the ramifications if it were not? Suppose that instead of mutual destruction the Daleks defeated the Timelords and stole their knowledge of time and space! Davros is almost certainly leading them...how, I don't know...I thought he was executed."

"Davros wasn't leading the armies."

"No?" the eighth looked confused. "Then who...?"

"The Dalek emperor."

"He's got his own set of nine lives, that emperor. He and Davros...you'd think they were part time lord; creeping back into the history books, no matter how many times you blot out their names."

"Well maybe next time we should just throw the whole history book on the fire!"

"Maybe we did...Gallifrey _was_ destroyed..." the eighth mused. "What did you do in the war?"

"Me? Well I can't remember too much, now that you mention it. I know what happened – odds and ends, but..."

"...but you felt as though you saw it through someone else's eyes; most likely mine. So whatever happened to cause the destruction of Gallifrey was _my_ doing...and it likely cost me my life. Well, to a lesser extent than the others..."

They left the café and trudged back to the TARDIS.

"So, have you given any further thought as to who might have transmatted you?" asked the ninth as he closed the TARDIS doors.

"There are only two factions in the war; Timelords and Daleks. I doubt very much that the Timelords would remove me. They'd be wanting as much help as they could lay their hands on. So I can only imagine it was the Daleks."

"That's a bit of a long shot." The ninth said. "They'd have to get the beam to a high enough power level to breach the TARDIS, then home in on you, and even if they did that, I can't see how a transmat beam could send you into my timeline and of all places into my control room, with the transition being so perfect that you never even noticed."

"Yes, it is a bit of long shot isn't it..." the eighth conceded. "But it's the only theory we have. How they achieved it isn't so important now as getting back to Gallifrey. It's clear that if the Master wasn't responsible then the Daleks were." Suddenly he snapped his head up. "That's it! The Daleks must have commandeered my TARDIS! That's how they must have won the initiative! They got rid of me and transmatted a strike force of Daleks onboard. The TARDIS reached Gallifrey; the coordinates already set for the presidential palace and out the Daleks come! It is Troy all over again!"

"And the part about you in my TARDIS?"

"Something they overlooked. They sent me on my way, but without designating a destination. My signal probably beamed across space and time until something recognized it and allowed my body to materialize. And what could recognize me more easily than my own TARDIS?" The eighth looked at the ninth and smiled. "You should consider yourself lucky. I could have ended up rematerializing in any of our TARDISes, any that happened to stray too close to my signal. For my part I am grateful that I latched onto yours and not our sixth's TARDIS. Putting up with him would have been pure torture. Now...let's get the Old Girl ready for the trip of her life..."

The time rotor grated as it rose, and almost didn't retract. The eighth Doctor winced.

"Ughh, don't like the sound of that...the time rotor's clagging up...are you sure you input the correct equations?"

"Yes, quite sure, _would like to check them?_" The ninth flashed back with a sarcastic smile.

"I wouldn't mind." The eighth double checked them and found them to be sound. "_That's odd..._have you made any other alterations to the Old Girl besides a change of décor?"

"Look, my TARDIS was left on the settings _you_ kept it on. All I did was go for a bit of an organic look. Now, let's have a look at this time rotor..."

Rose stood back, stunned. The TARDIS must be a lot more complex than she imagined, if _two _Doctors working together were having trouble with it. The eighth happened to see her dubious expression and sighed.

"My _dear_ Rose, are you going to just stand there like an overseer or give us a hand?"

"_Me..._what can _I_ do...I mean...you two look like you're up to your ears in it..."

"What we are trying to do is something TARDISes were not designed specifically to do. The calculations needed to plot a course into another timeline are enough to make all Einstein's hair fall out; there's enough...combinations and permutations to sink a battleship; and most of those will end in _our_ destruction.

"In other words, Rose, we need _crack-a-jack timing_ and_ dead straight precision_, one false step, one number wrong and we'll all be toast." The ninth clarified.

"To say nothing of the energy we'll need." The eighth muttered. "I was thinking, maybe we should get Rose to open the Eye of Harmony...we could use the energy...it would make the transition faster."

"And a couple of orders of magnitude more dangerous!" the ninth flashed back. "Leave the Eye as it is. We have enough unstable elements as it stands. With the Eye open our situation will go from _critical_ to '_just peachy keen!'_

The eighth shrugged and walked over to Rose. "Okay, you hold these two levers down. They might heat up, but pay that no mind; they _must_ be kept down. The TARDIS might try to resist what we're about to put her through, but for our sakes, we mustn't let her win...do you understand?"

Rose nodded. She placed her hands upon the leavers. The ninth was kneeling on the floor, reaching under the console, keeping the core systems in check.

The eighth was at the main controls. He looked about and double checked the coordinates. "Alright, _here we go!_" he began the dematerialization process.

The lights in the TARDIS dimmed. All was silent. Then the time rotor lit up and began to rise, slowly, _painfully_and with immense effort, as though the weight of the world was crushing down on it. The tortured, wheezing groan made Rose wince. Even the least technically minded person in the universe would be able to tell that the TARDIS was straining to function, let alone travel. For a good thirty minutes or so the TARDIS struggled. After the first ten had finished, the eighth Doctor relieved Rose of her responsibility; there was no need anymore, that part of the process had finished.

The two Doctors worked swiftly when a malfunction threatened their materialization in the new time-stream.

"There..." the eighth said, lowering his sonic screwdriver, thinking he had corrected the error. Moments later they were flung about like rag dolls. The TARDIS was making the most disconcerting sounds.

"Doctor!" Rose shrieked.

"Rose, just...just hold on, we'll be okay!"

"It's just a little turbulence!" the eighth added, rising to his feet and dashing to the controls. "It means we've made it! We've just crossed the threshold. We're in my timeline..._I hope..._" The TARDIS settled down and things returned to normal. The eighth Doctor mopped his brow. "Well...that wasn't so bad...could have been worse...where are we?"

"We're in a temporal orbit around Gallifrey." The ninth reported. "I can't get reading as to what era it is, what date...anything. The sensors are all dead."

"They'll recover." The eighth muttered. "Can you get a reading at all on anyother type-40's? My TARDIS might be lurking about somewhere on the surface."

"Sorry, not a trace." The ninth said with a sigh. "Can't pick up a thing."

"That's a shame," the eighth said. "Let's land and have a look about..."

The TARDIS materialized inside a building; which one, or where specifically it was on the planet, neither Doctor was sure. They had latched onto the signal of the most advanced structure and gone from there. The TARDIS sensors were crippled and after it materialized it gave an audible groan and fell dim and silent.

"What...happened?" Rose asked.

"The Old Girl is exhausted. Come, let's see where we are..."

When they emerged, they found themselves in a nondescript Gallifreyan building. A large one, by the looks of it. There were two doors; one at either end of the corridor.

"Door number one, or door number two?" the eighth mused.

"That one." The ninth said, pointing.

"Why?" the eighth asked.

"No reason...just think it looks nicer..." the ninth said and started off.

Somewhat puzzled, Rose and the eighth Doctor followed behind.

The door slid open. Rose yelped. Her Doctor leapt into action, pulling her aside, out of view. The eighth was left in clear view of the Dalek, and stepped back, momentarily stunned by its sudden appearance. And it's _odd_ appearance...

The Dalek seemed equally as confused and for a few seconds they stood silently, regarding each other in suspicion.

_DOC-TOR! _WHY...ARE YOU..._**HERE**?_

End ch.2. ch.3 soon...after I sleep...

(_Odd_ as in the fact that he has not seen a Dalek such as those shown in the new series before)


End file.
